To develop a theoretical understanding of organizational control in voluntary organizations, we are studying the effect of organizations' control structures on their responses to the social changes in their environment. Specifically, we are studying the ability of one set of national organizations, Protestant church denominations, to exercise control over their local units' (church congregations') stances toward social change. From the point of view of organizational theory, the church congregation is an especially fruitful unit of analysis since it is subject, on the other hand, to the control of its parent denomination (usually relatively liberal) and, on the other, to the control of its members (usually relatively conservative). Methods of the study include: at the national and regional levels, interviews with denominational officials and content analysis of documents (e.g., constitutions, annuals); at the local level, interviews with ministers, a questionnaire survey of a random sample of officers and members, and content analysis of budgets, policy statements, etc. of sixty randomly selected congregations. The principal hypothesis is that the extent to which congregations' social stances will "transcend" (be more liberal than) members' attitudes will vary directly with the strength of the organizations' control structures (e.g., the degree of centralization of authority in the denomination).